


Target Practice

by DawnsEternalLight



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)
Genre: Bonding, Boredom, Damian and Steph's great adventures, Death Threat, Fluff, Gen, Laser Tag, Sneaking Out, Stalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 12:29:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9491015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/pseuds/DawnsEternalLight
Summary: Damian is beginning to wonder if he's cursed. First he's been trapped in the manor for days because of a crazy man threatening his family. Then when he finaly get's out its to spend the day with Brown of all people. Should he really be surprised when, during a game of laser tag, a real gunshot rings out?





	

Damian couldn’t stop the flurry of excitement in his stomach as he pulled his uniform on over his head. After so long he was finally out of the manor and ready to get back into action. Across from him, Brown pulled on her own vest, clicking it into place. He hadn’t been excited to be partnered with her, but anything was better than spending another day doing nothing.

Stephanie shifted the heavy vest on her shoulders and grinned at him. “Excited?”

He scowled at her. “Not in the least.”

Her grin only widened. “Right.” She said, unbelieving.

The plastic clip of his vest caught his finger and bit into the skin making him yelp and yank his hand away. “I don’t know why you decided on such an inane game as this, Brown.” He said shaking his hand to stop the smarting.

“Laser tag is the ultimate game, Dami.” Steph told him before moving to take the traitorous clips from Damian. “Here, let me help with that.”

“I can do it myself.” He said, even as she finished clipping his vest closed.

The laser tag vest felt heavy and immobile as it rested on his chest. The gun hung in an awkward place, out of easy reach for him, and he was certain, after examining Brown’s, that his vest was too big for him. He could ask for a smaller vest, but he refused to go down to a child’s size. He would adjust and use what he had.

He and Steph were herded, along with a group of other players, into a small dark room. There they were shown an instructional video that Damian mostly tuned out. After having suggested the game as a way to alleviate some of his boredom Brown had described the game mechanics to him as they drove over.

It wasn’t so much that Damian was bored at the Manor, it’s that he’d been there for days. Cabin fever, Grayson had called it during a phone call. A form of boredom built up from a week of patrol as his only touch of the outside world, and that was in limited quantities.

It should be a comfort to Damian that his house arrest had nothing to do with him, Father was only trying to protect him. Still, it felt like a punishment all the same. He vaulted between being irritated with his father and with the man who’d threatened their family. Damian could take care of himself, but he was also couldn’t stand the idea that anyone would put the entire family under duress because of an issue with his father.

He wasn’t privy to all the details, (Father had been abnormally careful about the information involved in the case so far) but as far as he knew the threat had been made to Bruce’s family rather than himself. Grayson was in Bludhaven, Drake at his apartment, and Todd was still considered dead and not in danger. Cain was overseas with Gordon. Which left Damian to be stuck at the manor. Father wouldn’t even let him walk Titus around the grounds, citing any kind of leaving the manor as ‘too dangerous’.

The video ended, and Damian was shocked to learn that they would not be given time to strategize with their team before the match started. Instead the group scattered into a large dark room as a countdown chanted overhead. He had no time to study the field of play, or find a suitable hiding place before the countdown ended and the game began in earnest.  

Damian was shot no less than four times before he managed to get his gun steady in his hand. It was clunky and large. There was no balance to it, and Damian tripped over the cord at least once. He was happy for the dark lighting in the room, if not everyone would have been privy to his red face.

He managed to find a suitable hiding place to practice with the gun and even managed to hit a few of the enemy team members. Then, as he felt like he was gaining his stride, his vest went off again in a flurry of red lights and he growled in frustration. 

“Having some trouble, Baby Bat? It’s not the dark is it? I thought bats could see in the dark.” Steph was by his side now, her gun flashing in the direction of the person who’d just shot Damian.

“The idea that bats can see in the dark is a misconception, Brown. They use echolocation, which is sound based. You should know that.” Damian grumbled, waiting out the time it would take for his vest to allow him to shoot again.

In the black light, he could see Steph’s eyes roll. “I forgot. You don’t joke.”

“I joke.” Damian argued, aiming his gun again. He fired, and missed. His groan of frustration was only held back by his will to not embarrass himself in front of Steph.

Steph’s next three shots hit their mark before she answered. “Oh yeah? Name one joke you’ve made in the past week that’s landed.”

Damian opened his mouth to retort, but he came up short. Perhaps he didn’t joke, not that often at least. “I’ve been under house arrest for a week, there’s been no one to joke to.”

“Right, because Alfred and Bruce don’t count.”

Damian wasn’t sure if Brown was serious or not, but chose to accept her statement as it was. He was too thankful to her to give a biting retort. She’d been his only source of sanity for a few days, and she’d snuck him out of the manor. The whole game had been her idea after she’d walked in on him glaring at a crack in the kitchen ceiling.

The crack had been his crowning achievement for the day. He’d tried everything, art, music, and reading. All his usual distractions had left him as bored as he’d started. He’d ambled into the kitchen for a snack and flopped down on a chair when Pennyworth announced he’d ‘spoil his dinner’ if he ate anything. Which lead him to glaring at the ceiling and discovering the crack, miniscule as it was.

Perhaps he should thank Brown for bailing him out. As often as he complained about her and the others, it seemed they were always there for him in some way or another. He contemplated this as he aimed his weapon and fired missing four consecutive shots. Each shot he’d carefully aimed and missed. Damian did not miss, ever.

Brown on the other hand, had not been trained in the same fashion he had. Which meant she should not be firing as accurately as she was. She’d hit every one of his targets, a moment after he’d missed.

Damian scowled down at his gun. “These have the accuracy of Todd’s weapons.”

Steph laughed. “Now _that_ was a joke. Come on, Bat Brat rule number one in laser tag is keep moving.” 

He followed her lead and watched carefully as she hit another one of the enemy team. His eyes were locked on her movements, and yet he couldn’t figure out how she was managing to hit so many targets. After his next miss, he decided that asking wouldn’t kill him.

“With the lack of accuracy, I’m surprised you’re doing so well, Brown.”

She grinned, her white teeth flashing blue in the light. “You’re trying to figure out why you can’t hit anything. It’s easy. Just point and shoot, don’t even try to aim.”

“Tt.” Damian scoffed, but on his next attempt he followed her instructions, and swung the gun upwards in the general area around his target. He was satisfied to see their vest light up with the same red lights that had been plaguing him for the whole game.

Gleeful, he hit a pair of two as they ran in his direction, their faces matching his earlier scowl in as they turned to regroup. He went to aim for another approaching teen when a heavy weight plowed into him, knocking him to the ground at the same time as a crack broke the repetitive music track playing over the speakers.

Most of the players would mistake it for a piece of the soundtrack, it had been littered with battle noises from the beginning, but Damian knew the difference. It had been a gunshot, a silencer had been attached, but even that didn’t cut off all sound. If that wasn’t enough, the scent accompanying the sound confirmed it. Mixed in with the semi-sweet powdery smell of the fog trailing through the course was the distinct smell of gunpowder, spicy and acrid in comparison.

“Brown!” Damian scrambled out from under the young woman to examine her. Instead of letting him, Steph yanked him back down to the ground.

“Not yet. He’s still there.” Her finger aimed up at a blind, one Damian had originally ignored because there were too many ways to access it.

He caught a glimpse of light on metal, and a white shirt, glowing blue in the dark. Even hidden partially behind his game vest it was a dead giveaway to anyone looking for an easy target. At least their attacker had not been prepared for a laser tag game. Damian looked back at Steph.

“Were you hit?”

She shook her head. “Caught the strap of my vest. I might be a little singed, but I’m otherwise alright.”

Damian almost sighed with relief. Instead he nodded and began unclipping her vest. She gasped and swatted at his hands.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting us out of here unharmed. Take off your vest, it will only alert him to our presence.” Damian hissed back, he’d already moved on to pulling his own off, letting it fall by his side.

Steph slipped hers off and slipped it over her arm. Damian raised an eyebrow as she scooped his up.

“What?” she asked. “I don’t want to get fined for lost vests.” She tucked them inside out, so the lights were muted and wouldn’t give them away.

They were both dressed in black as per her instructions. _To better blend in_ had been her original excuse. It was apt that the camouflage would help them now. Both of them eased to their feet. Damian eyed the blind, while Steph scouted their escape route.

By Damian’s count the game would be over in less than then minutes. They had that long to apprehend the shooter, and keep anyone else from being hurt. He knew without looking at Brown that she would agree. Too many civilians were in the room to simply let the man continue to roam unnoticed. Besides, Damian wanted him caught, it was their best chance to stop him then and there.

He kept one eye on Brown, to make sure she’d been telling the truth when she’d claimed the bullet had missed her. Her walk was steady and she didn’t seem to be lagging behind him. He swallowed, it had been too close. He felt like Icarus having flown too close to the sun in his bid for freedom. A relief from boredom was not worth the price of Brown being hurt.

“There’s a few places he could have moved.” She said. “If he’s headed in our direction, he should come out—” She paused, and tugged Damian towards the left. Together they crouched below a waist high wall, “Right over there.” She pointed at one of the corners.

Damian realized that Brown had played this course often, so much so that she knew it well enough to scout out the shooter’s route. She hadn’t mentioned playing laser tag often, or even frequenting the place they were at, when she’d recommended the game. At the time Damian had wondered why she’d picked laser tag, now he believed he knew the answer. Or part of it. She’d played often, with who or why, he wasn’t sure. But the facts were clear enough.

 “He must have followed us straight from the manor.”

Damian felt his brain stutter and stop. Followed them from the manor? “What do you mean?’ he whispered back.

Steph shrugged. “B thought he might be lurking around the building, waiting for someone to come out so he could ‘get his revenge’.”

The man inched his way around the corner, his white shirt a beacon in the room. He was moving slowly, his gun held at his side, hidden from the casual observer.

“Father told me they couldn’t find him.”

Steph spared him a glance and single eyebrow raise before returning her attention to the intruder. “You believed that? Come on, Dami. He’s the Batman, of course he knew where the guy was.”

Damian wasn’t sure what he was feeling. Anger, irritation, and confusion all mixed in him and he glared over the wall at the man. “This was a trap.” It was as good as claiming he had been bait. Damian didn’t mind being bait for a villain. He’d done it often enough, but only with the decision being partially his own.

Steph turned again to him, surprise on her face this time. “Not at all. I didn’t think he’d seen us, let alone go through the bother of following us. I wanted you to get out of the manor for a while.”

His anger fizzled out as fast as it had risen. “Oh.”

There wasn’t any more time for them to talk, the shooter was getting closer and Steph had slipped one of the vests off her arm, pulling the gun out. She handed it to him. “Distract him while I sneak around his back.” She commanded.

He was too surprised to argue, then she was sneaking around the other side of the wall they were hiding behind. Damian wished for a moment their places were switched. He aimed the gun and then remembered Brown’s earlier advice and pulled it back down before swinging it up in the man’s general direction and firing. The moment he let off the shot he ducked back down behind the wall.

The man’s vest lit up with red lights, startling him. The hand with the gun flew up and he trained his attention on the wall Damian was behind. He made it two steps in Damian’s direction before Steph tackled him to the ground.

For some reason, Damian kept a tight grip on his vest as he hurried around the wall and towards both Steph and the shooter. She was busy tying his hands behind his back with the cord from her own vest and took Damian’s from him when he was close enough.

“Thanks Dami. Grab his gun, will you?” she said.

Damian opted for kicking the gun out of the man’s grip. Not that he was conscious to reach for it, Steph’s tackle had knocked him out.

“So,” She looked up as the buzzer sounded for the end of the game, “Do you want to explain this to Bruce or should I?”


End file.
